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The W-60 needs to pump even more water or it will overheat. Westerbeke’s original installation instructions for the W-60 advise diverting some of the cooling water directly overboard to prevent overflooding seawater into the exhaust. If you increase the size of the seawater pump beyond what was spec’d by Westerbeke, you should be cautious to avoid the same problem.
Rich
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If your engine overheats, steam should come out of the water heater pressure release. In fact, you should be able to temporarily cool your engine by dumping hot-water down the sink drain. If your fresh water doesn’t start to boil, there’s something wrong with the flow through the heat-exchanger.
Rich
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If everybody hooks up the green wire from the shore power cord to their DC ground, all the boats have their DC grounds connected together. All the zincs are connected and any boat that has electrolysis problems will share their problems with the other boats. I don’t think I want to be telling folks what’s best for them, but I decided not to do that. All the green wires inside my boat are still connected and they go to the engine block, but the green wire that comes in from the dock goes nowhere. Kind of makes me wonder why they put three wires in the shore power cords. Maybe folks who cruise in freshwater need the green wire.
Rich
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My comment was about connecting the DC ground to the RF ground plane. The radio equipment typically connects them internally. In theory, it would be possible to put in a transformer that would separate them, but I see no advantage. Sorry if my discussion was confusing. The subject of RF ground planes is too complicated to explain in a short mail message. My suggestion is to have someone who is qualified advise you on how to hook this stuff up.
With regard to the AC ground (green-wire in your shore power cord), I do not have my DC ground connected to this. I don’t want stray AC current getting into my shaft zincs.
Rich
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Tor
Its quite a complicated subject. Think of it as Voodo. At its simplest,
consider that the frequencies you expect your transceiver to operate vary
from as low as about 4mhz to as high as about 170 mhz. The wavelengths vary
from about 250 feet to about 6 feet. Remember that electricity travels at
the speed of light, so even though you might have a DC connection with zero
ohms to your battery ground, the radio frequency (AC waves) that travel
through your wires to your bonding system have at least a fraction of a wave
in the wire and perhaps several waves. You can’t think of something as
being well connected just because the wires are hooked up and your ohmmeter
says zero ohms. To make things more complicated, just because your ohmmeter
says you aren’t connected to something doesn’t mean radio frequency (RF)
signals won’t be connected. As an example, you can have an RF connection
through the fiberglass hull of your boat between a good ground strap and the
seawater. To make matters worse, there are pleanty of differing opinions on
the right way to connect your grounds. Here’s a good free publication on
the subject.http://www.sgcworld.com/Publications/Books/hfguidebook.pdf
I’m not sure I agree that the AC bonding system and DC ground system should
be separate. I think they should be connected at as few points if possible;
ideally one. Most people use the engine block for that connection, but your
antenna tuner and transceiver need both an antenna and DC ground too. I
have a heavy gauge cable running from my engine block up to my nav-station
to act as a radio ground. From the engine block, I have ground radials run
through my bilge. Pearson connected all the through hulls with ground
wires, but that’s not enough for an RF ground. For RF groundsMost folks agree that big flat conductors with lots of surface area are
better RF conductors than round cables. You can buy copper foil made for
purpose of creating an RF ground plane in your boat or you can buy copper
flashing. The stuff has sharp edges so wear gloves. Run a bunch of it in
your bilge as close to the seawater as practical. Glue it down with
something if you can; liquid-nails will do. Connect it to your engine
block. Run a fat ground cable from the block up to your nav station. Flat
braid cable is best if you can find some. Run another piece to ground your
antenna tuner. Cross your fingers and pray.Hope this helps
Regards
Rich – KE1EVQuote:
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That’s a Bowmar. I bought a set of these years ago to replace the original
large opening ports Pearson installed. It looks like the plastic was
replaced at some point. The caulking material doesn’t look like what Bowmar
used. The ports came painted with a good quality paint, but like everything
else it needs to be repainted every decade or so. I’ve had no issues with
mine after I installed them about 10 years ago.Rich
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Chuck
When I bought my boat many years ago I had her Awlgripped as part of the
sale. The boat has a rub-rail about 6 inches below the toe-rail. I had
them paint a black stripe there. The boat wasn’t originally painted that
way. At the time, the boat appeared to have a lot of freeboard and the
stripe lowered the appearance of the boat. More modern boats now have even
more freeboard. I think our expecations have changed and the 424 doesn’t
appear to be that high out the water anymore. I still think the boat looks
better with the stripe than without.After about 15 years or so, the awlgrip started to look sad. It no longer
had a shine and there were a few chips and scrapes here and there. I looked
into having her repainted by a yard, but couldn’t justify the huge cost. I
would guess a spray job would run $6k or more these days. That’s a lot of
boat units, especially if you know the paint doesn’t last forever. She
looked great for about 5 years, then looked OK for another 5 or so, then
started to look shabby. Instead of paying to have her painted, my wife and
I did it ourselves. It’s a bit of work and it doesn’t come out as good as a
spray job, but it looks pretty good when you consider that it costs just a
few hundred. I’d guess there’s about 40 hours of prep-work and it took my
wife and me about 3 days to paint the boat. Painting is a two person job.
If you want more information, let me know.Rich
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There were at least two rig heights of the cutter made, so tension would be
different for both. There are gizmos out there to measure rig tension, but
I’ve never really bothered with one. They are made mostly for small boats
anyway.Like most folks, I tune the rig by sailing the boat and adjusting as
necessary. When on a tack, the leeward shrouds should be loose, but not
flapping around. The uppers should be tighter than the lowers and should be
adjusted to put the mast straight and even. Resist the temptation to
tighten the leeward shrouds when under sail. You can screw stuff up this
way. Take the boat out for a sail and see how she feels. If the shrouds
look loose and you don’t point well, take her back to the dock or mooring
and tighten the shrouds a couple of turns.I use a shroud touched to the toe-rail to measure the relative adjustment of
the uppers. I look up the back of the mast track to get the lowers even.
There is no adjustment for the forestay, and I adjust the backstay with a
hydraulic tensioner to as little as 500 lbs when running and 3500 lbs when
pointing, more or less depending on how strong the wind is. You can’t get
more than about 2000 lbs with turnbuckles without galling the threads. I
put a little WD-40 on the threads when tuning. Yes, its not a very good
lubricant, but you don’t want a good lubricant there anyway. Its just
something to make the job easier and disperses after a few days.Rich
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http://www.pyacht.com/interlux-bilgekote.htm
Rich
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Yes, I purchased smoked Margard polycarbonate from a local glass shop and used silpruf bedding compound to replace the plastic in my deck hatches a few years ago. As reported earlier, I had hinge failures in two hatches and ended up replacing the whole thing. I bought a pair of Bowmar deck hatches from the same place I purchased the portlights for about the same price ($200 ea.). They were extruded aluminum frame hatches rather than the cast aluminum. They were the same size, but the hole pattern was different.
http://www.infolink.com.au/c/Sabic-Innovative-Plastics/Lexan-Margard-Polycarbonate-Sheet-n762089
Rich
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That’s what I used too. I got a set of four on clearance for about $200 each. They’ve worked well as replacements for the large oval hatches Pearson used in older 424’s. I’ve had them installed for about 8 years now. There’s some discussion on the internet about problems with the Bowmar portlights. I’ve had no problems. After reading various threads, I think that issues are related to the age of the ports in combination with using the wrong cleaning solutions. I never use windex or similar glass cleaners on plastic. This can cause crazing in the surface. I have no idea why. The other problem is related to gasket leaks. The rubber gaskets don’t last forever but are simple to replace. For that matter, the plastic lenses can be replaced too. I have a length of gasket material in my spare parts bin somewhere.
I’ve had problems with the original Bowmar deck hatches. The aluminum gets brittle with age and cracks at the hinge. I’ve replaced two of these and plan to eventually replace the third. They are 33 years old. I would assume that the aluminum portlights will eventually suffer from the same problem, though they may last longer since the hinge and dog hardware are on the inside of the boat. Nothing lasts forever. I suppose I could have sprung for stainless ports, but they are at least twice the price.
Regards
Rich
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Chuck
I have similar cracks on my hull on one side. I’ve ignored them so far, but I’m concerned that water will get into the laminate. I’ve decided to strip the bottom paint off and put on a barrier coat. It appears that even though you have a barrier coat, it does little to repair the dreaded cracks. I wonder if its worth the effort. I have few blisters.I called the Farrow System folks and am waiting for a reply from them. I got a $2400 estimate to soda-blast the bottom. I’ll see if their system is more cost-effective. I want to take off the old bottom paint even if I don’t do a barrier coat.
Rich
BlackSheep #47
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I replaced the small section in my V-berth with new teak-faced marine plywood. The plywood was thinner that the original stock by about 1/16 inch and had to be shimmed. I used some oak veneer I had laying around for the shim. Worked fine. I got the wood at goosebay lumber. Shipping would kill you to buy plywood from them, but they have unbeatable prices on teak lumber.
http://www.goosebaylumber.com/
Rich
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I replaced a section of the interior coach trim around one of the portlights in the V-berth. As I recall, removing the drip-rail was trivial. I drilled a small hole in the center of each bung. Put a screw in each and popped the bung out. I removed the screws and the rail came off. The damaged section ran under the forward bulkhead, so I used a multi-tool with a saw bit and straightedge to cut the panel. The forward section of the panel connects to the piece on the bow, so I cut there too. After removing the top trim piece and portlight, the damaged section came out. I assume that you have similar deterioration around one or more of your portlights. If you are handy with tools, this repair is fairly simple. I can send photos of the work if it might help.
Regards
Rich – BlackSheep #47
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Depends on what you have and no two 424’s are the same. I replaced two original large opening ports with Bowmar ports, but I found no suitable replacement for the two fixed ports in my head. The Bowmar ports are too narrow for the hole. Some owners report that the large port in the galley has issues because a replacement hits the cupboard cabinet when you open it. My replacement fit, but I had to shave a corner of the hatch to clear the cupboard when it opens.
Regards
Rich
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